


In Hesitant Defense of Season 7

by womanaction



Series: Buffy Meta [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 10:27:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11034297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/womanaction/pseuds/womanaction
Summary: Short Buffy season 7 meta. Originally posted on Tumblr in 2016.





	In Hesitant Defense of Season 7

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to consolidate my fanworks to a safe place off of Tumblr as much as possible, so I'm posting all my meta here.

You know, I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how S6 of BtVS was a difficult season for them to get through. I understand that. It’s definitely polarizing and provocative in many ways even today, and it’s especially jarring following S5. I’ve written about the many ways they’re inverses of each other before. I get it. It’s not easy.

But I think for me, S7 is a much more difficult season. S6 was emotionally devastating, but for the most part it was still shiny and appealing in some ways. Buffy’s revelation to the Scoobies in OMWF is utterly heartbreaking, but it occurs in the context of a musical episode that is substantially fun. Buffy’s depression has a backdrop of the wacky, nerdy Trio spray-painting the Death Star on their stealthy van; taking shots and gambling for kittens with Spike; becoming invisible and making with the shenanigans; et cetera. Dark Willow is still snarky, and Spike quotes Nirvana lyrics even as he’s going through the Trials after attacking Buffy. There are lots of hard moments, but the season sometimes feels almost manic in the constant drive forward, twists and turns. It’s upsetting but it often doesn’t give you time to linger, even when it’s just piling bad news on top of bad news (e.g., Seeing Red). 

Season 7, on the other hand, often feels like it has nothing but time. This could be attributed to poor writing and I think it is often ineffectual for a season with a year-long race against the First to be so plodding. The episodes feel more self-contained than in S6, but also less seems to happen in them. And as the season goes on, the world gets narrower and narrower. We’re not getting alternate universes here. The Potentials are shepherded to Sunnydale and stay there. Everyone is staying at the Summers house. Even other Sunnydale landmarks like the Bronze mostly disappear from view until all we have is Buffy’s house and the high school, the two focal points of the season. In one episode, the cast members don’t even talk to each other. It’s narrow and it’s slow and we’re forced to live in and with the characters, some of whom we know intimately but others…not so much. Despite the greatly expanded cast, S7 is definitely claustrophobic.

All of this makes S7 a difficult season to love. It’s not significantly more bleak than its predecessor, but it takes its time with it and doesn’t offer any escapes. Sometimes, this is effective (rewatching “Storyteller” prompted this whole line of thought from me, and the ending with Andrew’s silence is really spectacular). Other times, it lays bare the flaws in S7′s writing, many of which are not particular to the season but are most evident here because there is so little to distract us. I don’t know if, objectively, I would really be more bothered by Giles conspiring against Spike in S7 than him leaving an obviously in-need Buffy (and obviously unstable Willow) in S6, but in S7 we don’t have a musical extravaganza followed by an amnesia episode. We have some flashbacks, sure, but not told at the thrilling breakneck pace of S5′s “Fool for Love” or even S2′s “Becoming.” They’re just…there, sitting on top of everything else S7 passively gives us. 

In S6, I might have hated a lot of the characters’ actions, but I definitely understood them. Sure, Xander left Anya at the altar - because he saw someone claiming to be himself from the future! But it really wasn’t! S7 doesn’t tend to offer us such insights. The most obvious example is probably where things are left with Buffy and Spike - are they together? What happened to them that last night before the battle? Did she mean it when she said she loved him? - but it’s really true of a lot of the characters’ actions. If we’re to care at all, we have to guess why they’re doing what they’re doing, and sometimes that feels like we’re doing the writers’ job. And maybe we are. But I’ve been rewatching this season quite a bit lately - not in any sort of order or plan, just as I think of the episodes - and I don’t think it’s all bad. It’s different, and it doesn’t always work, but I think there is a lot there that fandom (or maybe just the parts of fandom I prefer to frequent) tends to overlook due to the nature of the season. 


End file.
